Tuesday, November 6, 2012

BlueMelon introduces storage limits for all account levels

The aim of this update is to keep the existing low prices for our subscription plans and to offer good deals on additional storage for those who upload a lot.
As time passes by, internet connections are getting faster and photo resolutions are getting bigger. People upload more and larger files than years before. This causes the storage requirements to grow exponentially, while the decrease in storage prices does not compensate for these trends by far.

Providers of internet services use different approaches to cope with this situation. Some of them are increasing their subscription fees, while others are decreasing the quality of storage and its reliability.

We have chosen another way to keep the payments for our services as low as possible, while still offering unbeatable quality of storage by storing every photograph on three different hard drives in various locations for the safety of your files.

If you are an existing BlueMelon subscriber, you will have the unlimited storage till the end of your subscription. New users, as well as those who are renewing their subscriptions, will get a limited storage space according to the plan they choose, with an option to purchase additional storage. See current plans and pricing for more details.

The prices for all our plans remain the same. While most users will not need more storage than included in the plans, those who want to upload a lot will need to sign up for one of our new storage plans.

Why do we think Unlimited Storage is bad ?

Unlimited storage is not sustainable. As you probably know, safe storage costs a lot of money. Obviously, nobody can offer unlimited storage forever. Companies can absorb losses for some accounts until certain level is reached, but then they will start reducing their services because they are forced to do so.

Unlimited storage is unfair. Because companies are loosing money to upload-heavy accounts, those users who upload less are paying for users who upload more! We think a fair approach is to include basic storage in the subscription plans and to offer additional storage for users who require more.

This update will allow us to further increase the quality of our services for both professional and amateur photographers.